Rhetorical Analysis Prompt Review for Final

Since we will be working on your Lucy argument during the majority of the class time, the blog will be the venue for review tips. Before commencing, I would like to remind you that on November 15, there were 2 blogs with reminders of how to improve distractions and write stronger essays. There were also links on those blogs to rules and practices to help you improve your writing. As this is a college-level and AP-level course, you need to take the initiative to improve any weaknesses via personal study, requested tutoring assistance or conference, and other proactive means.

• When you are given a rhetorical analysis prompt, you are focusing on the author's overall purpose and the strategies that the author selects. Even if "tone" is the emphasized strategy in the prompt, the author still uses exemplification, character diction, alliteration (slaveholders and savages connected, which creates a "s" sound or a snake-like representation of evil that connects to the religious elements), anaphora, hypophora, water and fountain motif, and dialogue to create her point. The above strategies were noted in my first read of the prompt.
• In addition, you are not summarizing the prompt. In a few essays, students began to review the relationship of Dr. Flint with Linda instead of emphasizing why Jacobs would use this anecdote to exemplify her master's hypocritical nature.
• The introduction should include the author and the title, which should be appropriately punctuated. Looking over the Jacobs prompt, there are still many of you using quotation marks for italicized titles, which is not helpful in the beginning of the essay. 
• The thesis directly answers the prompt and, in the majority of cases, indicates the specific strategies and the overall purpose of the text. 
• The body paragraphs rely on structure. In regards to structure, the topic sentence should indicate an author's strategy and explicate it purpose. As the focus is on the author's strategies, it is not the opportunity to ruminate on the given topic or paint background imagery. Start with the author and end with the author.
• The best supporting details slowly introduce each idea. Yes, you can dump all of your evidence into one sentence, but then your explanation will only be able to cover all those elements as a whole. Instead, bring in a piece (or two) at a time, explain the "why" factor, and then bring in another example of evidence to further support your original idea.
• The concluding sentence should reaffirm the strategy and purpose without regurgitating everything before. Instead, you could reaffirm the strategy's role and how this connects to the next strategy.
• Evidence-wise, the majority of you have improved immensely by using select words and phrases in your sentences and transitioning evidence into your writing. Reminders, though, are warranted. Do not use ellipses, do not use random commas, and do not use full sentences from the prompt. 
• Spelling is still a dodgy subject. A few suggestions for those who find this to be a weakness in their writing: practice spelling key rhetorical strategies and common tricky words, learn common spelling rules (http://www.zaneeducation.com/education/literary-arts/spelling-rules.php), and make sure you spell words from the prompt correctly.
• Words to learn how to spell to avoid further distractions: imagery, repetition, hypocrisy, derogatory, develop, separation, parallelism.
• As discussed in class and on earlier blogs, you must have control over apostrophes. 
• Be aware of what tone words you use for a writing. For example, several people felt that Jacobs had a "sarcastic" tone when discussing her  master and other white men's hypocrisy. However, "sarcastic" connotes that her attitude is insincere and attempting to create some type of biting humor. (It also reads like Jacobs is at fault in this circumstance.) Perhaps, she is disparaging, denouncing, or condemning their acts, which adds to her purpose in exhibiting slavery's wrongs.
• Do not use second person, which is directed to the audience's response and is a technique for persuasive writing and not rhetorical analysis writing.
• Active verbs provide a better sense of a writer's maturity. To be verbs are less mature and create passive or wordy constructions.
• Do not use rhetorical questions, which in my AP handbook is one of the "commandments" of AP writing. A rhetorical question requires your audience to do the work for you.
• An allusion is a reference to something well-known. A Biblical allusion is a form that references a specific Bible story, symbol, or well-known attribute. If one is writing about religion in general, there are not allusions present.  http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-allusion.html

A Brief Tutorial of Punctuation Rules (you need to know the difference between independent and dependent clauses):

1. If you start a sentence with a dependent clause, you follow with a comma prior to introducing the independent clause.

2. Independent clauses do not need a comma before a dependent clause as it is unnecessary.

3. Commas are needed, however, surrounding any transitional expressions.

4. Semicolons join 2 independent clauses; they do not belong in place of a comma.

5. A comma used between 2 independent clauses is a comma splice, this sentence is an example of how not to punctuate a sentence.

6. A colon is a technique to announce an explanation: it is another means of varying syntax.
7. When you list items, examples, or strategies, use commas to indicate that you have a list.